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Wachtel, Harry H.

b. 1917 - d. 1997

Harry Wachtel, a New York attorney, was a legal advisor and confidant of Dr. King. After earning a law degree from Columbia University, he served in the Army in World War II and returned to Manhattan to practice law. Introduced to King in 1962 by King’s lawyer Clarence Jones, he urged creation of a tax-exempt organization to provide financial support to the Civil Rights Movement and helped found the Gandhi Society for Human Rights. With Jones, he defended four ministers in a libel suit stemming from a New York Times ad soliciting funds for the Committee to Defend Martin Luther King Jr. Wachtel set up meetings for King with potential donors, advised him on FBI investigations, arranged meetings with high officials like President Lyndon Johnson, and provided advice on voter registration and social policies. He accompanied King to Norway for the Nobel Prize. After King’s death, Wachtel was Coretta Scott King’s personal lawyer and vice president and counsel for The King Center in Atlanta.

Harry Wachtel writes Charles Englehard thanking him for his payment of $5,000 toward a $15,000 pledge to The American Foundation On Nonviolence. He states that his initial contribution was extremely helpful in registering African Americans in Mississippi and other southern states.

Harry H. Wachtel, confidant and legal counsel to Dr. King, writes to General James M. Gavin, regarding a previously postponed meeting with Dr. King. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the necessity of Dr. King's Poor People's Campaign.

Harry Wachtel informs Randolph Blackwell that he's including $4,500 for the Southern Rural Action Project. The purpose of the project is to reduce the amount of poverty known to be prevalent in the south.

Civil rights activist Harry Wachtel tells Soviet Premier Kosygin and President Lyndon Johnson that the world community depends on their solutions to crucial problems. He charges President Johnson with ending bombing in Vietnam and he charges Premier Kosygin with influencing Vietnam towards peaceful negotiations. Lastly, he asks both leaders to help eliminate war and poverty in the Middle East.

Howard Moore, a partner in the Law Offices of Ward, Moore and Alexander, informs Dr. King of the establishment of the Southern Legal Assistance Project (SLAP). Mr. Moore describes how SLAP has already achieved a victory in representing a soldier who was accused of cursing his white officers. He also asks Dr. King to consider being named as an adviser for the project.

Ms. Dubois writes to Dr. King regarding the strategy of the Commission on Religion and Race of the National Council of Churches. She believes that a change in attitude of whites, so that they desire to work with "Americans of darker complexion" should be a part of this strategy.

Barbara W. Moffett writes a memorandum to Dr. King and Harry Wachtel, commenting on a second draft statement submitted by the American Friends Service Committee to the SCLC. Ms. Moffett also sends a copy of the memo with a handwritten note to Andy Young.

This agenda details a 1966 SCLC annual board meeting in Miami, Florida. On April 12, a review of the White House Conference on Civil Rights took place. On April 13, Andrew Young presented the Program Analysis and Future Projection.

In this New York Herald Tribune article, Dr. King refers to the recent 1964 Presidential election as a decisive repudiation of segregation and extremism. He claims the election results honored the memory of President John F. Kennedy, assassinated a year earlier. Kennedy’s greatest contribution to human rights, King says, was his televised appeal to the American people on June 19, 1963 describing equal rights and equal opportunity as a moral issue as old as the scriptures and as clear as the Constitution.